Blakeview: House of Lee

The area near Causeway and Veterans Memorial boulevards in Metairie couldn't be hotter in terms of real estate and business development, but it's actually been that way for quite a while. I'm thinking back to 1959 and the gigantic Chinese restaurant that opened there that year: House of Lee. The restaurant, one of the first offering Asian food in the area, was housed inside a four-story green and red building designed to resemble a Chinese pagoda. It advertised breakfast, lunch and dinner (featuring both American and Chinese foods), as well as private meeting and banquet rooms. Proprietor Lee Bing, his wife and eight children — including future Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee — ran the restaurant. Lee Bing died in 1973, and his wife died in 1974. The family continued to run the restaurant until 1995, when the property sold for $1.75 million. It later became a Borders bookstore and now is a retail and office complex that includes a Mellow Mushroom pizza restaurant. Harry Lee died in 2007. A statue of the popular longtime sheriff stands on the opposite side of Causeway Boulevard near Lakeside Mall.